


Freudian Free Fall

by firesonic152



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Misunderstandings, Pining, Pre-Fall of Overwatch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 18:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17188310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firesonic152/pseuds/firesonic152
Summary: Had Gabriel imagined that slip of the tongue? “Did you just call me ‘babe?’”Jack tilted his head. “I thought I said ‘Gabe.’”Gabriel shrugged and took the folder. “I’m tired, man. I probably misheard you. Forget it.”The corner of Jack’s lip twitched, like he wanted to smile, but his eyes remained coolly distant. “Is it what you wanted to hear?”





	Freudian Free Fall

**Author's Note:**

> My entry for the "They Loved Each Other" R76 zine! I'm very grateful I was able to work on this project with so many incredible people, it was a great experience. And now I'm so excited we get to share what we did with all of you! Make sure you check out the They Loved Each Other collection that this work is a part of to see all the other amazing fics, and check out @tlovedeachother on twitter for even more great stuff!

It had been a long week for Gabriel Reyes, one of those weeks where the ratio of days to the number of hours he slept was about one-to-one. Of those precious few restful hours, roughly three had actually been spent in his own bed. Nobody knew better than he that having a workaholic streak a mile wide _and_ stress-induced insomnia was a lethal combination.

He covered a yawn with his right hand as he typed in the code to lock his office with his left, numb relief filling him at the prospect of _finally_ crashing face-first into his mattress. After testing the handle, he turned on his heel and began the trek back to his room.

Unfortunately, his hopes for an uneventful trip were dashed when he rounded the corner to find none other than the Strike Commander advancing from the other end of the hall.

Jack himself wasn’t an unwelcome sight, but the manila file in his hands was something Gabriel could go without dealing with for at least another twelve hours. He flipped his hood up, hoping to signal that this wasn’t a good time to talk as he squared his shoulders and sped up his walking pace. But this must have been a pretty important manila folder, because Jack waved to get his attention and then added a “come here” flick of his hand.

Gabriel shut his eyes for a second, soaking in the dry burn from being awake for too long, then obediently approached Jack.

“Hey babe, can you look at this report for me?” Jack asked, holding out the folder.

Gabriel blinked at the ominously thick stack of files, lingering on his closed eyelids for a moment too long, then looked at Jack. “What did you just say to me?”

“I need you to look at this report,” Jack repeated slowly.

Gabriel massaged the bridge of his nose, trying to will away the static buzzing between his ears. Had he imagined that slip of the tongue? “No, what… Did you just call me ‘babe?’”

Jack tilted his head. “I thought I said ‘Gabe.’”

He sounded entirely too unconcerned for a mistake like that.

Gabriel shrugged and took the folder. “I’m tired, man. I probably misheard you. Forget it.”

The corner of Jack’s lip twitched, like he wanted to smile, but his eyes remained coolly distant. “Is it what you wanted to hear?”

Gabriel’s cheeks warmed and he smacked Jack lightly in the face with the folder. “Stop talking. You’re making my headache worse.”

Jack was pursing his lips now, valiantly fighting a grin. “But _babe_ …”

“Sorry Commander, must’ve finally lost my hearing from all those gunshots on the battlefield,” Gabriel drawled, turning away to hide the heat creeping up to the tips of his ears behind his hood.

Jack stifled a laugh with a sharp exhale through his nose and said, “Good thing you don’t need your ears to read that report,” in farewell.

* * *

Gabriel made the mistake of believing Jack would _not_ turn this awkward miscommunication into a long-term joke. Unfortunately, this meant he was caught off-guard when they sat down for a debriefing with a few UN diplomats and Jack, face dead of any expression, nodded at him with a simple “babe” in greeting.

It rolled off his tongue so smoothly that Gabriel almost wondered if he had misheard Jack’s usual address of “commander.” But the diplomats all raised their eyebrows and Jack cracked a smile after a beat, so it _must_ have happened.

Gabriel managed to laugh it off the first time, but then it kept happening. It didn’t matter where they were or who was present; Jack called him “babe” nearly every time they saw each other.

Gabriel did his best to play along, but the fact that Jack found calling him pet names so _hilarious_ was exhausting.

* * *

It hadn’t been a good day in the press for Overwatch, as controversy raged online about donations they had accepted from “dubious” political sources earlier that week.

“It’s only gonna get worse,” Jack said morosely. “I can tell. One photoshopped image of me kicking a puppy and history will hate me forever.”

“Well, I still like you,” Gabriel offered.

Jack gave him a tired smile that crinkled in the outer corners of his eyes. “Aw, babe.”

Heat bloomed up the back of Gabriel’s neck and something inside him jolted at Jack’s presumption of insincerity, at the idea that he wouldn’t _mean_ something so important as his feelings for Jack.

“I do like you, Jack,” he admitted, quieter. He hesitated, and then found himself blurting, “We should go out.”

The instant that left his mouth, he nearly bit through his tongue trying to yank it back, but it was too late. He briefly considered biting through his tongue anyway, so he could bleed out before he had to deal with the consequences.

Jack’s smile grew. “I like you too, babe.”

Gabriel’s throat closed up immediately. He stared at Jack, who had gone back to examining his screen, too casual to have possibly understood the depth of what Gabriel had just confessed.

“I don’t have time tonight,” Jack piped up again, “but we could go to dinner tomorrow?”

Gabriel struggled to swallow around the dark, crushing sensation at the back of his mouth and nodded. “Yeah. Okay. I can do that.”

“Great.” Jack squinted as he made a note in his calendar.

“I, uh.” Gabriel pointed at the door, having abruptly forgotten the English language. “I…have things.”

Jack waved, one eyebrow raised in amusement. “Right. See you then.” He paused, then tacked on, “Babe.”

Gabriel already had one foot out the door and nearly tripped over the threshold. He caught himself, shut the door behind him too loudly, then proceeded to yank his beanie down over his eyes with both hands, fingers curled tightly in the rim.

He just needed a moment to collect himself, to forget the nonchalant way Jack had said, “I like you too, babe.” Just a moment to get his face to cool down and his eardrums to stop broadcasting his heartbeat.

It was only a joke. Jack had never been serious about this. If he had meant it in the same way Gabriel had, it would have been obvious. Right?

An agent wearing a bright blue Overwatch beret nervously asked Gabriel if he was okay. He heard himself snap, “Yeah, I just like standing in front of Morrison’s office all day for fun,” and didn’t realize he had walked away until he found himself back in his own room.

* * *

Dinner was either a success or a failure and Gabriel couldn’t make up his mind.

Jack called him “babe” from across the table with candlelight flickering like affection in his eyes, and Gabriel spilled water on his pants trying not to choke.

Their fingers brushed when Jack yanked the bill out of Gabriel’s hands to insist on paying. The only reason it didn’t tear was because the contact sparked enough to make Gabriel flinch away.

Jack walked him to his door and bid him goodnight, with a “babe” and a wink. Gabriel didn’t kiss him for that, so maybe the night was a victory after all.

* * *

It was a rare free Thursday afternoon, and Gabriel found himself spending it in the Strike Commander’s office, watching Jack rant about an interview he had just returned from.

In all honesty, Gabriel wasn’t listening. At first, he was distracted by the black mascara smudge under Jack’s eye where someone had missed a spot removing the makeup from his television appearance, but then he began to notice the sweet smattering of freckles trailing over the top of Jack’s cheekbones. That quickly devolved into blatant ogling when it became apparent that Jack was too invested in his tirade to notice.

At least Jack had the decency to be consistently oblivious.

“I was _so_ close to telling her to fuck off,” Jack said, nose scrunching up with his scowl. The way his lips curled around his words, white teeth flashing under the red of his mouth, was unfairly distracting. “I’ve got a fucking international organization to run, and they want me sitting pretty in lounge chairs on talk shows? It’s such—“

Gabriel closed the distance between them, muffling Jack’s words with a kiss. It was messy—Jack’s mouth caught mid-speech—and a shiver went up Gabriel’s spine when he realized neither of them were flinching from it, instead tilting their heads to press in closer.

Gabriel retreated before he could do something stupid, like stick his tongue down Jack’s throat. His stomach was folding in on itself, cheeks uncomfortably warm as he waited to be thrown out.

Jack licked his lips distractedly, a faint smile pulling them up at the corners. When he spoke, his voice was a touch rougher.

“Anyway, she wouldn’t stop asking about my fucking high school yearbook, so—“

Gabriel kissed him again.

Where before it was merely an impulse, this time it was aggression, fisting the lapels of Jack’s coat to bodily drag him closer, teeth and tongue demanding a response, _anything_. Because even worse than a negative reaction was no reaction at all, and he refused to continue living in this gray space that Jack had created between them where actions didn’t have consequences. Where Jack could keep dangling _something more_ on a string in front of Gabriel’s face and expect nothing to change. Where Gabriel could kiss him and they could go on chatting amicably like it hadn’t happened.

No more. Gabriel was done with this game. His feelings were real and they deserved acknowledgement, even if it came in the form of a rejection. So he kissed Jack like the world was ending—and maybe it would, when Jack finally pushed him away.

But Jack didn’t push him away. He shoved into whatever space was left between them, one hand clutching at Gabriel’s wrist over his chest as a punched-out wisp of a moan escaped his mouth, open and wanting against Gabriel’s.

When they parted, choking down air like they were drowning, Gabriel couldn’t tell if he was dizzy from oxygen deprivation or the painful hammering of his heart as it threatened to burst through his ribcage.

Jack wasn’t doing much better. He clutched at Gabriel’s shoulder, steadying himself in his seat. His lips were so _red_ and gleaming unapologetically with saliva. His eyebrows knit together as he caught his breath, glancing up with a frown.

“ _Babe_ ,” he grumbled, “I’m trying to tell you something. Quit—“

“Why do you keep calling me that?” Gabriel blurted out. His voice sounded high and strained to his own ears, and he could only hope the harsh quality left over from making out masked it.

The lines around Jack’s eyes sharpened as he squinted. “What?”

“That stupid pet name,” Gabriel snapped, glad to have reined in some of the desperation from his tone. “I know this is all a big joke to you, but it stopped being funny after about three times.”

Jack tilted his head, running his tongue absentmindedly over his raw lower lip.

“Okay. I can work with that,” he said, nodding to himself. “What should I be calling my boyfriend, then?”

Gabriel’s heart stopped and he very nearly did not have the breath to ask, “Your _what_?”

Jack snorted with the effort it took to keep from laughing. “My boyfriend? _You_ asked me out, remember?”

For a moment, the only thing that could be found in Gabriel’s brain was a resounding “ _oh_ ” that echoed around the inside of his skull like a rubber ball.

Jack didn’t wait for Gabriel to regain his mental faculties. Toying with his conspicuously mussed hair, he started rambling again. “So anyway, the host, right, she keeps pestering me about the goddamn yearbook like I actually _remember_ my high schoo—“

Gabriel tugged Jack fully into his arms and kissed him a third time, with no fear of being reprimanded for yet another interruption. He could just interrupt that, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey if you like my writing, hit me up on twitter @firesonic152! I post lots of threads and have a ton more stories on there that you can check out.


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